Apple Cider Princess
by Setsumi-san
Summary: One very early summer morning Faust's wife Eliza makes him take a break from work by offering him some fresh apple cider and reminding her beloved of exactly why she likes to drink the sweet beverage with him. [FaustXEliza fluff]


Apple Cider Princess 

A fanfic by Setsumi-san

(Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King.)

Few were as devoted to their profession as Dr. Faust VIII. He'd been scrawling endless medical notes onto his papers as he sat in his home office. The man's labor on his research was not unlike a worker bee doting on its queen. Sometimes he stayed up all night hypothesizing, researching, filling prescriptions, and organizing files. This greatly distressed his wife of not yet one month, Eliza, who would beg him to get some rest while he gently insisted he needed none. However, nothing was further from the truth.

"Damn you Eliza," he mumbled sleepily, "Why are you always right?"

"Because I know you better than you know yourself, dear." came her soft voice from the office doorway. Faust jolted back from his half conscious state with a surprised gasp and swiveled his chair in his beloved's direction. She wore a light, airy, pink nightgown and carried a tray of a steaming teapot and two empty cups. The corner of his mouth curved into a miniscule smile.

"I see," he said, "What kind of tea did you fix? It smells familiar, although I can't quite put my finger on it."

"Oh it's not tea. However, you are right on the familiar part. Summer's just beginning,"she responded with a beam.

"…And?" he asked. Eliza immediately frowned and placed the tray on the floor.

"You do remember what happened that one summer don't you?" she questioned him. There was a nervous pause as her husband twiddled his thumbs. He couldn't just say no because that would earn an "I can't believe you forgot what this means to me" speech complete with a huffy wife storming out of the room and the typical "What? What'd I say?" mantra from the poor, clueless husband: him. Faust racked his brain for possible special memories she could be referring too. Oh boy…his friends weren't kidding when they said the first year of marriage was the toughest.

"Um…of course I do! We…ah…we went horseback riding that year," he answered with a nervous laugh.

"Helmut Faust the Eighth, I've never been on a horse in my life! You know they scare me to death!" she exclaimed.

"They do?" he queried, blinking.

"Auugh!" she cried. Faust waved his arms in a "just kidding" gesture. Good Lord, couldn't the woman take a joke? He knew his wife better than that.

"I'm sorry, darling. Care to refresh my memory?" he said appeasingly.

Eliza calmed down a bit and began, "Well, when I woke up a few minutes ago and didn't feel you next to me I got concerned. I thought you would have gone to sleep by then. Anyway, I started thinking about us and you know what suddenly crossed my mind?"

"What?"

"Apple cider."

The blonde physician raised an eyebrow and asked, "Come again?"

"Warm apple cider. I love to drink it in summer with you so I fixed some," she explained. Her slender, doll-like hands picked up the teapot and poured the piping hot beverage into their cups.

"Summer? Wouldn't you rather be drinking something like lemonade?" he asked as he carefully picked up his drink. Eliza smiled, sipped her own, and shook her head.

"Apple cider is my favorite drink but I like it in summer most of all because it reminds me of the first time we really talked to each other. I was just twelve, and still a sick little girl back then. You would always bring me my homework from school because I was too ill to come there most of the time," she continued.

"I remember doing that. I would always be excited at the thought of seeing my beautiful princess, yet terrified of talking to her," Faust reminisced happily.

"But that princess wanted that sweet little boy with the glasses to talk to her. She didn't have many friends of her own age so when he came to her palace one day where the weather was just between spring and summer; she asked him if he would like to stay and talk to her for a few minutes. He turned red as a beet!" she giggled.

"I'm sure he did. After all, when that princess looked at him his mind went blank. He couldn't remember who or where he was," he interjected.

"Anyway, the princess and the boy slowly but surely began to make conversation. They were having a very pleasant time together when she began to have a violent coughing fit. She could hardly breathe," Eliza said gravely.

"Oh dear. What happened?" Faust asked her.

"Well, it just so happened that there was a glass of warm apple cider by the princess's bedside table. The boy saw it, picked it up, and held it to her lips. She drank it down and it soothed her throat instantly. She was very grateful to the kind little boy and from that day on they were extremely close," she replied.

The German doctor closed his eyes and pictured the fairytale in his head.

"Yes," he murmured, "I remember now." He then let out a large yawn.

His wife gave a triumphant smirk. "Warm cider also is bound to put anyone to sleep," she replied.

"You tricked me," he grumbled. She only smiled wider.

"Let's go to bed, darling," she gently persuaded him.

"Alright, alright…" he sighed.

The End


End file.
